Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I've seen pieces of this film before, but never the whole thing. It is nicely remastered and pretty darned thrilling to watch. Enjoy.

youtu.be/AqYddqVHXtg?si=Fu8NaZTEVr0IcW2L

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing.

Yes, that's a good one. I find the drafts they show particularly interesting.

That was a great video. Still can't believe they went as fast as they did for as long as they did.

I feel like my car is slow as molasses compared to what they were showing. No way mine has anywhere near that amount of torque off the line.

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Believe it or not there's only a 20% jump in torque. The main difference is having to drive in High all the time.

One thing I'm curious about is what they did in the way of oil changes, which is normally rather time consuming. Oil wasn't very good in those days so I rather doubt they went the full mileage just topping it off but I suppose they could have.

Another thing absent from the film is they never showed the broken windshield, which tells me they weren't actually filming the real test (which had a collision with a pheasant), but must have done some "acting" for the film before or after the actual testing. As I recall part of a publicity tour included the broken windshield with a sign explaining what happened so I don't think the windshield was replaced right away. This is reinforced by the rather wooden dialog by the non-actors.

I'm sure they just filmed a bunch of B roll at the start and pretended like it was done over time. The actual car was also filthy from road dust at the end as well.

Oil I would assume got drained at some point. You could refill and drain at the same time with some coordination.

all I can say is incredible. to see all those great men together including Jesse Vincent who made this country what is use to be is too cool. the genuis behind such automotive quality that could put its automobiles through such tests is mind boggling. I've been turning wrenches and restoring automobiles for nearly 40 years and all I can do is laugh when I think about the cars of today trying to do that test. The stuff we as Americans have been brainwashed into buying over the last 50 years makes me sad.Having said that I still think it would be fun to watch a modern vehicle with multiple timing chains soaring through the hood after say 5 hours would be hilarious to watch. Man if I had a time machine what a time to have lived through and worked amongst such automotive giants.

Really enjoyed this film. Thanks for sharing. Just loved the suits the guys in the film were wearing. Everyone looked so sharp. It was certainly a much more elegant time compared to today!

Thanks for the link! Is that 56 taillights or was that a Caribbean ?